Winchester state secondaries

[SuperSue77]

Does anyone have any info on state secondaries in Winchester, Kings School, Westgate and Henry Beaufort in particular. DH and I are considering moving to the area and have a year 5 daughter who would need a secondary place in Sept 20. We’ve seen a house we like close to Kings and Westgate but it is in the catchment area of Henry Beaufort. Anyone know anything about any of these?

Second hand info from parents of kids who are now y13 so may be a bit out of date. They are all good.

Kings possibly more pushy but I believe 'bands' as opposed to sets.
Westgate good and solid all round.
Henry B has slightly less good academic reputation but is still perfectly capable of turning out 'straight A' results. Supportive pastorally.

People in some other parts of the country would probably kill for a place at any.

Most then go on to Peter Symonds for 6th form (though other options are available such as Barton Peveril, Sparsholt, Eastleigh, and the ones I don't know north), so they pretty much all end up together anyway.

Hopefully someone with more up to date info will be along in a while.

Thanks very much teens. It’s good to hear about the “push ones” and good pastoral care as those type of thugs aren’t easily picked up from Ofsted or results. I’m quite interested to know what the people who live there think of the schools if anyone else out there knows?

Kings no longer band - but set for pretty much everything. Westgate only set for Maths, as far as I know. HB don't tend to set much, I think.
You need to live in catchment for Westgate, within 1.5 miles of catchment to be safe at Kings; HB still covers a wide area - but this is shrinking.
They're all great schools. Just different.

That's interesting Lemon. Do you agree with my general summary or has perception of the schools also changed in the past few years?

Thanks Lemon. That's what is so scary is 3 different schools and not living there you can't be sure what would be right for your child. We're currently in Surrey by a great school that would suit our daughters but DH longs to move away - I think we are both coming to the realisation that it's just not worth upsetting the family for.

Super 3 great schools, a superb 6th form plus other choices nearby if she decides A levels not for her. New Forest, Airport, Beaches, all close by. London 1hr by train. I wouldn't let concerns about schools put you off moving if everything else is right.

@TeenTimesTwo I'd say that over the years, Kings' has become a bit more relaxed, while Westgate isn't as chilled. Westgate now have the same compulsory skirt rule as Kings' ; Kings girls can now wear trousers.
Op - why not come down for the open evenings/ days, and then decide? Wintonians have until recently been able to
choose whichever of the three they prefer, but the bulge is now in early secondary and we're mostly all finding that our catchment school is just fine, even if we may have fancied one of the others.

I went to HB and then PS many many moons ago! It seems they are all good schools so I would consider where you want to live.

I grew up in a tiny village in the HB catchment, Kings (used to be 2 separate schools back in the day) is on the other side of town, whereas Westgate is town centre. I would choose whichever your child could walk to.